Saturday Nite Live ! (NO RESERVATION REQUIRED)
Jonathan Katz
Long Island, New York native Jonathan Katz took up piano at six and French horn at nine. He discovered jazz at 11 and played with Count Basie Orchestra great Frank Foster and other jazz giants in his teens. He studied music at Yale University and the Eastman School of Music. After studying Japanese at Sophia University, he moved to Tokyo in 1991, where he has established himself as a highly regarded pianist, bandleader and composer/arranger. Jonathan has performed with famed jazz artists Ray Brown, Kenny Burrell, Lew Tabackin and Eddie Henderson, with the NHK Symphony, the Tokyo Philharmonic and other leading Japanese orchestras, and has performed and recorded with enka superstar Itsuki Hiroshi.
In 2008, Jonathan assembled Tokyo Big Band, a 19-piece ensemble of top Tokyo-based musicians. TBB’s library includes over 80 original compositions and innovative arrangements of pop and jazz standards and Japanese traditional songs. Since 2019, he has been pianist in the Disney World Beat big band directed by Brad Kelley, and has led 5- and 8-piece bands as pianist/arranger for bossa nova singer Lisa Ono. He is also an avid music educator who teaches jazz piano and vocal, composition, and arranging privately, holds workshops around Japan, in Taiwan and the U.S., and has taught a series of quarterly one-day jazz lecture-concerts at Mitsukoshi Culture Salon at the Mitsukoshi Main Store in Nihombashi since 2020.
And remember, it's free. No cover charge. No music charge. You just can't beat SNL for an
exciting, entertaining night out in Tokyo. (NO RESERVATION REQUIRED.)
The Entertainment Committee
Coming Up!
January 21 NO SNL
January 28 Yuhei Matsunaga
February 4 NO SNL
February 11 NO SNL
